Want to have some fun? Spend six months as the acquisitions editor for a small press, preferably one that uses inventory-free printing, and discover why it is that the guidelines on the Zumaya Publications website are what a few have referred to as nasty, controlling, anal retentive--and those are just the ones suitable for family viewing. I had one author advise me he was going to go into the forest and pray to his Native American ancestors to infect me with a plague of boils and such other awful afflictions I would cry out for death.
Hasn't happened yet--must be my nature spirits outrank his.
At first, I was inclined to think it was just that, like Rodney Dangerfield, we digital publishers couldn't get no respect. However, as I talk to other people involved in the publishing industry on the business side, it seems there is plenty of cluelessness to go around. Given how competitive it is trying to get published, why would any aspiring author deliberately alienate someone who might, given the right manuscript, help them achieve their goal?
Are you in publishing? Got a good war story to tell? Want to share it? Can you beat being threatened with the wrath of Native American demons?
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